Third of women have an abortion by the age of 45

At least one in three women will have had an abortion by the age of 45.

The startling figure emerged yesterday following the first national survey of termination services in England and Wales.

The study shows that women are not gaining enough choice over their treatment.

They are also facing delays in getting abortions which means that they have to endure more invasive procedures, according to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

The number of women having abortions every year has risen from 154,300 in 1995 to 175,139 in

2000.

Ann Furedi of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service said the idea of having an abortion had been 'retained in the public imagination' since 1995.

Fears that year that certain types of contraceptive Pill could cause blood clots led to a rise in abortions.

She added: 'Increasing numbers of women in their 20s have decided they either don't want children at all or they want them later in life. Also lots of women are using abortion as a back-up to contraception.

'They feel they can accept that they don't have to have a child. Probably what we are seeing is far more unwanted pregnancies ending in abortion rather than being accepted into the family.

It's seen as being a responsible decision for women to make.'

The RCOG survey, which covered 324 private and NHS units, found that more than a third are failing to treat women seeking a termination within the recommended time.

Government guidelines state that women requesting an abortion should be offered an appointment with a gynaecologist within five days of referral from a GP.

They should have the abortion within two weeks of a doctor agreeing to carry it out.

Women seeking an early abortion - nine weeks or less into the pregnancy - should be offered a medical or surgical termination. But both methods were only available in only a third of units, the study found.

A spokesman for the Department of Health, which funded the survey, said: 'The audit reflects the situation in 1999 and it's likely that practices will have improved since then.'

But pro-life groups claim women are being 'stampeded' into unwanted abortions and are able to obtain them too easily.

It is feared that the number of women having terminations could soon escalate above a third as they put their careers before starting a family. Such a figure would reflect the fact that certain women may have more than one abortion.

Professor Jack Scarisbrick, chairman of anti-abortion charity, Life, said that the one-in-three figure - produced by the Birth Control Trust and used to back up the RCOG study - was 'extremely worrying'.

'There has been a steady decline in sexual values and abortion has played a major part in that,' he said.

'It is very closely associated with the collapse of marriage and the increase in cohabitation. The peak for abortions is at about 18 to 23 years old and the career woman element is there.

'But there is also the element of women who have had affairs or living with someone and not being ready to have a family.'

Professor Scarisbrick claimed that women were being put under pressure to have abortions. 'Women don't want abortions themselves,' he said. 'They get them because they are frightened about what their boyfriends or husbands or teachers will say.

'The RCOG is doing all it can to make abortion more available. And the National Health Service is falling over itself to provide abortions.'